Unusual wake held for Puerto Rican taxi driver

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rican taxi driver Victor Perez Cardona's final fare was highly unusual: a wreath of flowers for his own funeral.

Honoring his final request, the body of the 73-year-old, who died of cancer, was propped in the seat of his taxi cab, hands locked on the wheel, as if to drive himself to his funeral. A wreath of flowers was in the back seat of the vehicle parked at the funeral home.

Friends and colleagues mourned the man who had driven a taxi for the last 15 years of his life.

"This is a funeral of the people. People have come from all over the island. Some climbed in the taxi with him," said his daughter Generosa Perez Torres.

Since 2008, Puerto Rico has developed a tradition of odd wakes, including a young man mourned seated on his motorcycle, a boxer standing in the ring and an 80-year-old woman sitting in her favorite rocking chair and wearing her old wedding gown.